In 1907, in a remote region of China, explorers discovered a vast treasure trove of ancient scrolls. Dating from the 5th to 11th centuries AD, they recounted a Taoist interpretation of Jesus's life and teachings. In this volume, theologist Martin Palmer provides a history and translation of these sacred texts.

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Jesus in the sutras, stele, and suras -- The heavenly elder brother -- A Judean jnana-guru -- The non-existent Jesus -- A Jaffna man's Jesus -- Jesus as a Jain tirthankara -- An Upanishadic mystic -- A minjung messiah -- Jesus in a kimono -- Conclusion: Our Jesus, their Jesus

The Secret Sayings of Ye Su: A Silk Road Gospel provides a translation of, introduction to, and commentary upon an extraordinary, previously unknown manuscript. This Christian gospel, though written in koine Greek, was obviously influenced by both Buddhist and Daoist ideas and probably derives from Tang dynasty China (8th or 9th century). The account of how the manuscript emerged in 1994 and how it came to be translated by Dr. Jay G. Williams is, in itself, quite fascinating. The author also describes the nature of the text and why he thinks it should be placed in the Tang dynasty period. He provides a concise introduction not only to the history of Buddhism and the indigenous religions of China during this period but also to the "Religion of Light," a form of Christianity that entered China in 638 A. D. The work ends with a line-by-line commentary on each of the seventy-two verses of this gospel. Although undoubtedly ancient, the work seems amazingly contemporary in its ideas, offering a unique and quite radical vision of Ye Su (Jesus) and his teachings. Neither orthodox nor gnostic, The Secret Sayings comments about such topics as the place of women and gays within the community, the nature of the kingdom, and the source of Christian hope in the "Source." Although faith is emphasized, doctrines and dogmas are not. A place is found for both the Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother but alone neither is regarded as "ultimate." The fellowship of believers is emphasized, but value of the Church as an institution is seriously questioned.

Humans are created in the image of God, yet by choosing to rebel against God we become unfaithful bearers of his image. But Jesus, who is the image of God, restores the divine image in us. At the intersection of theology and culture, these essays offer a unified vision of what it means to be truly human and created in the divine image in the world today.

A study of the Gospel of Thomas, exploring what Jesus was really like and what he stood for. It demonstrates that Jesus's teaching is akin to Zen, in that it has an emphasis on direct seeing rather than endless cognition.

About two thousand years ago, a great man who was renowned for forgiveness and magnanimity was betrayed and slain by his compatriots who feared he would become their King. To the chagrin of his murderers, he was soon hailed as a God and the momentous events that ensued paved the way for the birth of Christianity. The venue for this drama, however, was not Jerusalem as might be supposed, but rather the eternal city of Rome. It is a description of the founder of the Roman Empire. In a work stranger than fiction, Gary Courtney propounds that the Jesus of Nazareth that graces the pages of the New Testament is an entirely mythological personage, and presents a step by step explanation of how the beloved Saviour of the Christian religion entered the world from the wings of a stage.

Here's why I wrote this little book of love poems. What I have wanted most in this life is a love that will never leave. And I realized that maybe I hadn't met with a love like that outside of me, in someone else, because I hadn't met an unfaltering love from within me. So I decided I would retreat for 40 days with my red pen to try to tether together the small-ego-everyday-me to the me that's a lighthouse-type-of-soul, the me that's just undiluted love. I wanted to anchor once and for all into the love that's within me, to a love that could never leave because it's the truth of who I am. Whether I'm with a partner or alone, I wanted to feel free- entirely my own- an Ouroboros whose love circles back into herself.This book is one-part sutras, one-part love poems, and one-part psychic twine. They tell my whole truth. They reveal my ardor for the divine. They unite the masculine, manly aspects of me with the womanly, feminine aspects of me that I have sought to balance. They reconcile body and soul, human and divine, animal and angel, light and the dark, or basically- all that we can be conscious of containing. What I didn't realize until after I wrote this book is that there's an ancient Tantric text called the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, which is translated as something like "the terror and joy of realizing oneness with the soul." It contains a poetic dialogue between the divine feminine and the divine masculine, between Shiva and Shakti, but in the case of this book it's more like a sacred back and forth between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. Ultimately, this book is a collection of love letters to and from my own soul.The Sutras of Unspeakable Joy are the 40 days I devoted to ending a pattern of thinking that love, true and unwavering, was something I would meet outside of me. It's a poetic conversation between the side of me that keeps forgetting that the deepest source of love comes from the divine and can only be met from within. And that side of me that is that love, completely, utterly, fully. And what I did by devoting these 40 days to trying with words to realize oneness with the soul- is that I embodied the truth I have always taught. That love is what we are, not what we find- that true love is here- within us. And, that no cathedral can ever compare to the massive spirit in the messy sinews of this human heart.

The Bible's influence on the West has received much more attention than its complex career in the East. R. S. Sugirtharajah's expansive study of Asia's idiosyncratic relationship with the Bible tells of missionaries, imperialists, and reformers who molded Biblical texts in order to influence religion, politics, and daily life from India to China.

"Christ the eternal Tao shows Lao Tzu's Tao Teh Ching as a foreshadowing of what would be revealed by Christ, and Lao Tzu himself as a Far-Eastern prophet of the Incarnate God."--Back cover